Pepperminty Goodness

This weekend a friend of mine held a cookie swap. What a good idea that was! Whip up eight dozen cookies, hang out with friends for a few hours enjoying sangria and then take home a dozen cookies in eight different varieties! So my holiday baking if officially finished. My friend, Miranda, and I made these great cookies and packaged them in little fabric bags. Having a serger made the bags so easy to make. I pulled some fabric out of my stash and had all eight bags made in less than an hour. (I cut strips 6x24 inches, roll hemmed the short ends and then serged the long sides together and viola! I had a quick and cute cookie bag.) Here's the recipe we used:

Peppermint Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 T milk or cream
2 tsp peppermint extract
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups flour

1 cup crushed candy canes (about 2 boxes)

Cream the butter and sugar and then beat in the eggs. Add in the peppermint extract and the milk. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking powder and the salt. Crush the candy canes. I put them inside a ziplock bag and beat them with the rolling pin. You want very small pieces. Bigger pieces will melt and stick to the cookie sheet. We fought this problem by using parchment paper. It worked beautifully.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter / sugar mixture and beat until the dough pulls away from the of the bowl. Scoop out some dough and roll it into a ball. Roll the dough ball in sugar and then use the bottom of a glass to flatten the cookie. Sprinkle colored sugar on top if you wish. Bake at 350 for about 13 minutes. Let the cookies cool for two minutes on the cookie sheet and then move to a wire rack. Makes about four dozen cookies.